Thursday, March 08, 2018

When is a copy and the original the same

In an interesting article, Byung-Chul Han examines the notion of what is an original artifact versus a copy. He explains the different notions in the East and West in a way that is relevant to anyone thinking about design and creativity. The major argument that Han makes is that in China (and other Eastern societies) the notion of what is an original might appear as strange to us in the West. According to him, in these cultures, a perfect copy is the same as the original and has no greater value than the original. The article tells a number of fascinating stories of when this difference in thinking between East and West has led to serious misunderstandings and conflicts.

I was intrigued by this article. I have no idea how correct it is and how true it depicts the cultural differences, but even if it is not a true depiction, it does raise a lot of exciting questions about how to think about what is an original and if an original should have any particular status. Again, all relevant questions to any designer.

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I have earlier commented on two other books by the philosopher Byung-Chul Han on this blog. See links below.
"In the swarm"

"The burnout society"

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Btw, the online magazine Aeon, where this article published, is excellent!

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